Saturday, 1 April 2017

Cabinet clears Rs 4,500 crore contract for self-propelled artillery

On Friday, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) cleared
the Rs 4,500 crore acquisition of 100 tracked, self-propelled guns that will be
manufactured in India by Larsen & Toubro (L&T), in partnership with
South Korea’s Hanwha Techwin (formerly Samsung Techwin).

This acquisition proposal, which the army regards as crucial
for equipping its strike corps with tracked guns that can keep pace with fast
armoured spearheads, had already come up before the CCS on Wednesday. However,
the matter was postponed because of a lack of quorum --- the minimum required
five ministers were not present at the meeting.

Now, with the CCS sanction accorded today, L&T
executives tell Business Standard they expect the contract to be signed within
a fortnight.

L&T and Hanwha Techwin will gain approximately 50 per
cent each of the contract. The guns are required to be delivered in 42 months
from the contract, which includes an options clause for an additional 50 guns.

To build the guns, L&T plans to set up a new
manufacturing line at its major unit in Hazira. However, until that gears up
for production, the L&T facility at Talegaon, outside Pune, will build the
gun.

The K-9 Vajra, as the gun is called, consists of a
155-millimetre, 52 calibre gun, mounted on a tracked vehicle. A five-person
crew drives and fires the K-9, shooting projectiles out to ranges up to 42
kilometres. The gun system has an automatic loader and a computerized fire
control system.

The armoured chassis, on which the gun is mounted, protects
the crew from shrapnel and small arms fire. It is powered by the reliable German
MTU 1,000 Horse Power engine, which carries the vehicle cross country at speeds
up to 45 kilometres per hour.

Modern artillery has long been a key equipment weakness in
the army. While L&T builds the K-9 Vajra under the “Buy Global” category of
the Defence Procurement Procedure; a separate project --- headed by the Defence
R&D Organisation, with leading roles played by Bharat Forge and Tata Power
(SED) --- is building the so-called Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System
(ATAGS), which is designed to meet the firepower requirement of infantry
formations.

In addition, the Ordnance Factory Board is likely to build 114
Dhanush guns, which are smaller, 155 millimetre, 45 calibre weapons. These are
an upgunned version of the FH-77 Bofors 155 millimetre, 39 calibre howitzers.

A separate contract was signed last year with BAE
Incorporated, USA for the supply of 145 ultralight howitzers. That will be
assembled in India by the Mahindra Group, from components sources from mainly
US suppliers.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

It is a good thing. So we have finally have 4 artillery pieces in progress .This government has taken decisions that were pending since Kargil. We need to appreciate the Army artillery bosses to have encouraged the two local artillery products and ensure they are ready in a record time. I hope plans are in place to ensure the ammunition for these are localised.

Can you tell us about the induction rate of all the four and also ammunition .